We did enjoy a short walk through a meadow to the littoral zone and found some beautiful clifftop views.

Derby and the girls romped through the long grass on the the way back.

Further along the coast, we finally found the elusive beaches.  It was fortunate that we had gotten the wetsuits earlier in the week since the heat at the Dublin Zoo was dissipated by the cool ocean breeze and the chilly water.

River braved the waters, Sage dug in the sand, and Derby ate shells.  We later found coffee and ice cream and headed on to Malahide for dinner.

As you can see from our visit to the Grand Canyon, the weather was not as warm as it sometimes can be in Arizona. We did, however, get a few nice days when it was sunny and warm.

Our friends and old neighbors from England are now living in Los Angeles and managed to make a trip over to Scottsdale for the weekend. We enjoyed seeing them! We played in the pool at their hotel and went for a hike on the nearby Pinnacle Peak.

On this adventure, the girls’ coyotes had super powers and were occupied with mountain rescue of other injured animals.

The view from Pinnacle Peak is quite nice.  To the west, you can almost make out the Sackett residence behind this pile of rocks.  Just over the ridge, the land drops down into the Rio Verde river valley.  The seemingly endless  Scottsdale has temporarily halted it’s creeping sprawl here and there are many nice trails to explore the desert.  I went running along these trails every day and enjoyed the crisp air and beautiful landscape.

This morning River and I set out to find a swimming hole along the River Trent between Swarkestone and Barrow-on-Trent. One of Molly’s co-workers had described how to find the footpath. We managed to make our way through the massive field of six foot tall nettles of which we’d been warned. Along the way, we found these Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) plants, which are in the same genus as Jewelweed. Jewelweed is quite common in Massachusetts and is especially popular with the kids because its seed pods explode when you touch them. Himalayan Balsam behaves in a similar fashion, though unfortunately as you might guess from the name, it is an invasive species in Britain.

We popped quite a few nonetheless.

We did eventually find the swimming hole. There is a channel between the bank and an island where the water is about five feet deep. Just downstream, there is a shallow pebble beach suitable for splashing. A rope swing is attached from an overhanging willow branch and I thoroughly enjoyed splashing into the chilly water.

It was great to find a nearby place to swim, though the weather isn’t often hot enough to require immersing oneself. I’m sure that we’ll visit there again sometime soon.

La Roque-Gageac was quite charming.  It is located right next to the water.  We watched many boats pass by.  Canoeing the Dordogne seems to be quite popular and it certainly would be a wonderful way to see the area.

The village is located on the southern side of the cliff face and it provides a unique microclimate that supports subtropical flora.  The gardens up the cliff were very beautiful!

It was really an idyllic scene.

Apparently, the site had been occupied for many years and there were the remains of a prehistoric settlement even further up the cliff.  The cliff provided quite good protection for the settlement and it was heavily fortified during medieval times.

The afternoon was quite warm.  Ice cream helped a bit, but we couldn’t resist swimming in the river.  We found a great spot just west of the village and jumped in the water.

The kids were ready to go before we finished packing and spent some time on the swings waiting for us.

It isn’t particularly far to Hartington from Derby, but the kids made themselves comfortable and passed the time singing along to music.

The campground is in a field on a farm, apparently typical for camping in England. Molly brought her hammock, but was unable to find any suitable sturdy trees. The grass does provide a nice, soft surface for sleeping, though.

There were a number of our home educating friends who were there as well and the kids had a wonderful time romping through the meadow.

It threatened to rain just before dinner, so the kids got out the umbrellas. The clouds passed without any precipitation and the umbrellas became dens for some sort of game.

Not surprisingly, there were plenty of ungulates in the vicinity. I estimate that there are about 45 million ruminates (sheep and cattle). While this doesn’t approach the shear volume of countries like China and Australia or the ruminate/person ratios of New Zealand and the Falkland Islands (only 0.7 per person compared to 15 per person), it is a remarkable number of grazers in a relatively small area and they have a huge impact on the ecology and the landscape.

Here we are walking through one such landscape. The remarkable thing about this photo, besides the number of buttercups (apparently they aren’t tasty) is how tall River is compared to Molly. I think she must be having another growth spurt.

This is actually the same River Dove that we explored previously, only further upstream. An idyllic spot for a picnic and a swim.

The water was actually very, very, cold. The kids didn’t seem too bothered by it, though. I managed to get in for a few seconds, but it was too shallow to swim any distance and it was too cold to just lie there, so I gave up fairly quickly.

This patch of mud was nice and squishy!

River walked across the stepping stones to get across.

It is a beautiful time of year in England right now. Everything has been very green recently. Flowers are blooming everywhere.

I can’t resist taking wildflower pictures. This thistle was an amazing color!

Mayflies were abundant as well.

The kids spent a lot of time exploring a tunnel through the limestone cliff that connected the large cave opening with a smaller opening off to the side. Molly sent Sage through with the video camera. Needless to say, a video of a dark cave is not visually stimulating, but I found it fascinating nonetheless. You can hear the camera banging into the rock walls. Conversing while traversing this dark world apparently helped distract them from what might otherwise have been frightening.

One of the kids had a bat detector and we listened to some Chiropteran conversations as well. I think the bat detector works by frequency shifting the short wavelengths used by bats to communicate into pitches that our ears are capable of discerning.

Some of the folk we went with are planning to stay for the week. If the weather cooperates, we’re thinking of going back next weekend for another go.

We all loved it! The best part, though, was swimming in the outdoor pool when it started snowing. Swimming in the snow was an amazing experience. The kids climbed out of the pool to gather snow to eat while they swam. It was magical!

We stayed for five hours, breaking briefly to fill our bellies. I wish we had more photographs to share, but something about water and cameras just don’t seem to mix. It was remarkable how much more confidently the kids swam after that much time in the water. By the end, River was able to tackle the biggest waves without any trouble and even Tove was swimming without any assistance.

Here is promotional video showing what is like at Badkap. Though we aren’t featured in their footage, it does give a sense of what the facilities are like. Once the new window is open, click on “Schnell” to start watching the best quality video. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the sauna with all the kids…